Chris Jepson: Life as a melody

“Life is for the living. Death is for the dead. Let life be like music. And death a note unsaid.”

― Langston Hughes

I have the good fortune to be preparing for a Tuesday, Nov. 11, speech (10 a.m.) at the Winter Park University Club. I hope you will attend. I’ll be exploring the question of what is the meaning of human life. I have definite ideas on the subject, as I am sure any reflective adult has, but while making notes I found myself asking the question: if I set my life to music, what would be my theme song?

Ask yourself that question. How would you assess your life and score it to music? Would you have different songs or melodies or symphonies even to correspond with the different periods in your life?

The number one popular song on March 19, 1949, the date of my birth was somewhat prophetic. It was “Cruising Down the River” by Blue Barron and His Orchestra. It’s a sweet little ditty reminiscent of those post WWII songs, of returning servicemen, of reunited lovers. My favorite song today of this era is Bing Crosby’s 1945 Decca recording of “It’s Been a Long, Long Time.” It featured the Les Paul Trio and is so achingly beautiful with the lyrics, “Kiss me once and kiss me twice then kiss me once again, it’s been a long, long time.” You can picture WWII veterans arriving home after years of dreadful war.

The first song that inspired me to actually memorize the lyrics was the rollicking 1960 “Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport” by the Australian singer Rolf Harris. It closed with “Tan me hide when I'm dead, Fred, 
tan me hide when I'm dead
. So we tanned his hide when he died, Clyde
 and that's it hangin' on the shed!” As a child I thought it a tremendous hoot that anyone would “tan” a human hide and then publicly display it.

I started high school in September 1965, the same month that the Rolling Stones released “Get Off of My Cloud.” I had no idea what the lyrics meant but the chorus (song title) captured for me my desire for independence, to be left alone. I’ve hummed that tune for decades. “Hey! You! Get off of my cloud.” It still rocks.

The early Beatles are from a different century, so innocent are the songs; “Love Me Do,” “Do You Want to Know a Secret,” “She Loves You” and “I Saw Her Standing There.” My favorite is “I Want to Hold Your Hand.” It’s an infectious song of exuberance, youth and desire. Love the 1960s.

Music plays such an integral part of our lives. I so cherish the songs of George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern and Hoagy Carmichael. It’s an understatement to say that they don’t make songs like they used to.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s final movement of his Ninth Symphony is “Ode to Joy” (see: Friedrich Schiller), as rousing and jubilant and inspiring a score of classical music as I know.

One of my musical picks if I were to score my life would be “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” composed by Harold Arlen with lyrics by Yip Harburg. I appreciate Judy Garland’s version, but the Hawaiian Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo`ole's Platinum-selling version of "Over the Rainbow" brings tears to my eyes. Give it a listen.

“Music is ... a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy,” claimed Beethoven. Indeed.